Special Public Lecture by Nobel Laureate Barry Barish
Date: Monday, October 26, 2026, 5:50 PM
Venue: R&D Center Auditorium, Chung-Ang University, Seoul
Co-hosts:
Departmenf of Physics, Chung-Ang University
Center for Precision Neutrino Research, Chonnam National University
Gravitational Waves: From Einstein to a New Science
Barry Barish
Caltech / UC Riverside / Stonybrook University
Albert Einstein predicted the existence of gravitational waves in 1916, but the effects are so tiny that even Einstein thought they could never be detected. After 40 years of controversy, theorists finally developed a consensus that they really do exist. Then the problem became whether experimental physicists could develop instruments sensitive enough to actually detect them? The Laser Interferometer Gravitational-wave Observatory (LIGO), using exquisitely sensitive techniques, made the dramatic observations in 1915 of gravitational waves coming from the collision of two Black Holes. The history leading to the discovery, the discovery itself, and the exciting future open by this new window on the universe will be presented.